EP0280023B1

EP0280023B1 - Opening arrangement on packing containers

Info

Publication number: EP0280023B1
Application number: EP88100573A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Hans Rausing
Original assignee: Profor AB
Current assignee: Profor AB
Priority date: 1987-02-24
Filing date: 1988-01-16
Publication date: 1993-03-10
Anticipated expiration: 2008-01-16
Also published as: EP0280023A3; AU596730B2; ES2038699T3; JP2532553B2; DE3878944T2; US4838428A; GB8704289D0; DE3878944D1; EP0280023A2; JPS63248663A; SU1595336A3; GB2202213B; GB2202213A; ATE86573T1; CA1299522C; AU1205888A

Abstract

Opening arrangements on packing containers of the non-returnable type for e.g. milk are usually of fairly simple design and lack e.g. reclosing facilities. A readily openable and reclosable opening arrangement in accordance with the invention comprises a pouring pipe (2) attached to the outside of the packing container, wherein a slide (1) is manoeuvrable by means of a projecting gripping element (5). When the slide is pushed to the open position the packing container wall is penetrated by ploughlike elements (10,11) joined to the slide, so that the contents may be emptied out via the pouring pipe. The opening arrangement also may be used on packing containers which consist of several part containers whose contents may be emptied out through a joint pouring pipe.

Description

The present invention relates to an opening arrangement joined to a wall of a packing container and including an opening and a slide. In the manufacture of packing containers from flexible, laminated packing material the laminate usually comprises a central carrier layer of fibrous material, covered on both sides by homogeneous layers of thermoplastic material. The packing material is converted with the help of packing machines through folding and sealing to individual packing containers filled with liquid contents (e.g. milk). The packing containers have different types of opening arrangements, which in their simplest form may consist of a printed opening indication and which on more sophisticated packing containers may be constituted of a prepared pouring opening which can be exposed and reclosed with the help of a pull-off cover strip.
Known types of opening arrangements for packing containers of the non-returnable type are subject to various disadvantages, e.g. that they are difficult to open or to reclose, that with certain combination, of contents and type of pouring opening it is difficult to empty out the contents of the package in a collective, even jet or that they are too complicated and expensive to manufacture (US-A-2 781 156). It is a general wish in the packing branch, therefore, to provide an optimum opening arrangement which overcomes the aforementioned problems.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an opening arrangement on packing containers, this opening arrangement preferably being capable of being combined with known types of packing containers, and to overcome the disadvantages which affected previous opening arrangements.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an opening arrangement which can be opened by a single movement of the hand and which can be reclosed in an effective manner by a movement of the hand in opposite direction.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an opening arrangement which has good pouring properties also in the case of those types of contents which cause difficulties in combination with known types of opening arrangements.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an opening arrangement which is simple to manufacture and to assemble and which is inexpensive in relation to the total cost of the package.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an opening arrangement which makes it possible in a rational and cost-effective manner to combine several individual packing containers with one another so that they can be handled and used by the consumer as a single packing container of a large volume.
These and other objects have been achieved through the invention in that an opening arrangement joined to a wall of a packing container and including an opening and a slide has been given the characteristic that the slide is displaceable in a pouring pipe provided with the opening and in that the slide includes a tearing component, which in the closed position of the opening arrangement is located in the pipe and which in the open position of the opening arrangement extends out through the opening in the pipe and into the packing container, so that the inner space of the latter is in communication with the environment via the pipe.
Preferred embodiment of the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention have been given, moreover, the characteristics which are evident from the subsidiary claims.
This opening arrangement, which is manufactured separately from thermoplastic material and is assembled thereafter on the packing container , is simple to open and to reclose and has very good pouring properties. Opening arrangements of this main type, that is to say opening arrangements with a defined outlet duct, may also be used to combine several conventional packing containers to one another and in this manner create a packing container of a large volume.
A preferred embodiment of the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the attached schematic drawings which only show the details indispensable for an understanding of the invention.
Fig. 1 shows in perspective a main part of the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention.
Fig. 2 shows in perspective and partly in section another main part of the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention.
Fig. 3 shows in section the main parts of the opening arrangement shown in Fig.1 and Fig.2 after assembly, but before application to a packing ccontainer, whose top part is also shown in section.
Fig. 4 is a section through the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention in opened position during pouring out of the contents from a packing container.
Fig. 5 shows in perspective the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention assembled on a packing container .
Fig. 6 shows an embodiment of the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention assembled on another type of packing container which comprises two part containers.
The opening arrangement in accordance with the invention comprises two co-operating main parts, namely a first main part in the form of a slide 1 and a second main part in the form of a pouring pipe 2. Both parts are manufactured from a plastic material, e.g. polyethylene, and are designed so that they can be assembled inside each other by pushing the slide 1 in through the one open end of the pouring pipe 2 (the rear end, that is to say the righthand one, in the Figure). The slide 1 is of substantially rectangular shape and comprises a bottom surface 3 with longitudinal edges 4 which extend at a substantially right angle upwards from the bottom surface 3. At one (rear) end of the slide a gripping element 5 is located which in the preferred embodiment described is of substantially circular ring-shape, but which, of course, may be of any other suitable shape, e.g. a shape which indicates to the consumer the correct direction of pulling. At the opposite, front, end of the slide there is a projecting wall part in the form of a flap 6 which is attached to the one edge 4 of the slide by means of a weakened portion serving as a hinge. The flap is of a length which corresponds to the width of the slide and a height which corresponds to the height of the edges 4.
The bottom surface 3 is provided with a substantially centrally placed, rectangular opening 7 and two openings 8,9 located on either side. In each of the latter two there is a tearing component 10,11 which is formed in one piece with the slide and is connected to the bottom surface of the sane at one edge of the respective opening 8,9, more particularly the remote edge in relation to the gripping element 5. The two tearing components 10 are substantially arc-shaped and oriented so that the highest point of their arched or convex surface is at a level with, or slightly below, the upper limiting line of the two edges 4, whilst the free ends of the tearing components 10 facing towards the gripping element 5. are substantially in a plane with the bottom surface 3. The ends of the tearing components 10,11 facing towards the gripping element 5 have a number of projecting pointed portions which are designed as relatively sharp "edges" or "ploughs".
The second main part of the opening arrangement, or the pouring pipe 2, is of a length which by and large coincides with the length of the bottom surface 3 and is of square cross-section, the width and height of which substantially correspond to, or slightly exceed, the width and height respectively of the bottom surface 3 and the edges 4 of the slide 1. It is thus possible to push the slide 1 into the pipe 2 in such a manner that the slide can be pushed to and fro in the pipe with small resistance by means of the gripping element 5 .
The bottom surface 14 of the pouring pipe 2 is provided with two openings 12,13 which are located at some distance from each other and have between them an unbroken portion of the bottom surface 14. Above the two openings 12,13 the upper wall surface 15 of the pipe is provided with two projections or ridges 16,17 extending in longitudinal direction of the pipe which are formed by pressing down the upper wall surface 15 to the desired depth. The height of the ridges 16,17 mainly corresponds to half the distance between the bottom surface 14 of the pipe and its upper wall surface 15, and the length of the ridges corresponds substantially to the corresponding longitudinal dimension of the openings 12,13.
When the two main parts 1,2 of the opening arrangement have been assembled by virtue of the slide 1 having been pushed into the pouring pipe 2 so that only the gripping element 5 projects from the one end of the pouring opening, the opening arrangement is ready to be assembled on a prefabricated packing container filled with liquid contents (Fig.3). The packing container is of substantially known design and is produced by folding, forming and sealing of a flexible packing laminate which, for example, may comprise a central carrier layer of fibrous material which is coated on both sides with thin layers of thermoplastic material, e.g. polyethylene, and possibly also further layers of barrier type, e.g. aluminium foil. The material of the packing container 20 may possibly be provided on the top side of the packing container, or at the point where the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention is intended to be attached with weakened areas 21 in which the stiffening fibrous material has been excluded so that only comparatively thin layers of thermoplastic maerial and possibly aluminium foil remain. The two weakened areas 21 are designed and located so that after application of the opening arrangement they largely coincide with the extent and the location of the two openings 12,13 provided in the bottom surface 14 of the pouring pipe. On application of the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention to a previously manufactured plane top surface of a packing container known in itself, the opening arrangement is positioned as shown in Fig.3 and is joined to the top wall surface with the help of the adhesive, mentioned earlier, applied to the bottom surfce of the pouring pipe, which prior to application has been activated e.g. through the supply of heat. After the application the front end of the opening arrangement, that is to say the end provided with the flap 6, will extend slightly (1-5 mm) outside an adjacent edge of the top surface of the packing container whilst the gripping element 5, preferably, should not extend outside the opposite edge surface of the packing container. With such a placing it will be possible simply to pour out the contents without any risk of their running along the outside of the packing container at the same time as, thanks to the opening arrangement not unnecessarily extending outside the contours of the top surface of the packing container, it is optimally protected during handling of the packing container, so that damage or unintentional opening are prevented.
When the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention has been assembled on a packing container and is to be used by the consumer for pouring out the liquid contents of the packing container, the consumer gets hold of the projecting gripping element 5 and pulls the same backwards until the slide 1 has been partly pulled out of the pouring pipe 2. In so doing the upper surfaces of the two tearing components 10,11 come into contact with the two ridges 16,17 extending downward from the upper wall surface 15 of the pipe. On continued displacement of the slide 1 in the direction of the gripping element 5, the tearing components 10,11 will be forced in underneath the two ridges 16,17 until the space between the lower surface of the ridges and the bottom surface 14 of the pouring pipe becomes too small for the curved tearing components 10,11 still to find room. As a result the front, sharp-pointed edges will be forced down through the two openings 12,13 in the bottom surface 14 of the pouring pipe and, in a ploughlike manner, further through the two weakened areas 21 in the upper wall surface of the packing container. As soon as the edgebearing front end of the tearing components 10,11 has been forced through plastic and aluminium layers present in the weakened areas 21, the tearing components 10 will continue to swivel downwards, the weakened connecting surface between the respective tearing components 10,11 and the bottom surface 3 of the slide serving as a hinge. A continued pull-out of the slide 1 with the help of the gripping element 5 is prevented when the tearing components 10,11 reach the rear edge of the openings 12,13 in the bottom surface 14 of the pipe, in which position the tearing components 10,11 have penetrated and practically completely pushed aside the layers in the weakened areas 21 of the packing container, so that the interior of the packing container, via the openings produced, and the pouring pipe 2 are in communication with the environment. In connection with the pull-out of the slide 1 a wall part 22 located at the transition betwen the gripping element 5 and the bottom surface 3 has been removed from the open rear end of the pouring pipe 2, so that the passage between the surrounding air and the interior of the packing container has been freed. In corresponding manner the flap 6 located at the opposite end of the slide 1, through the effect of the lip 18, has been forced to the side, so that the pouring opening of the pouring pipe has been freed and pouring out of the contents can take place, the volume empied out from the packing container being compensated through intake of surrounding air via the rear opening of the opening arrangement.
When the consumer, after pouring out of the desired quantity of contents, wishes to reclose the packing container, the slide 1 is returned with the help of the gripping element 5 to its original position inside the pouring pipe 2. In so doing the two tearing components 10,11,owing to contact with the front edges of the openings 12,13 will be swivelled up again, out of the opening so that the slide 1 can revert to its original position, whereby the unbroken parts of the bottom surface 3 of the slide will cover the broken up portions of the packing container wall, so that the two openings 12,13 are completely covered and the communication between the interior of the packing container and the environment is completely cut off. On the return of the slide 1 to its original position the free end of the flap 6 will come into contact with the folded-down front edge 15' of the pouring pipe 15, so that the flap is brought down at a right angle against the edge 4 and thereby completely covers ther pouring opening of the pipe 2 so that extraneous objects such as dirt or the like are prevented from penetrating from the outside into the pipe.
On renewed opening of the packing container the two tearing components 10,11 of the slide will, of course, penetrate down into the packing container again through the openings made, but this is of no importance and the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention can be opened and closed without a problem any number of times.
The preferred placing of the opening arrangement in accordance with the invention on a packing container of well-known parallelepipedic type is shown in Fig.5, where the opening arrangement is in its opened position. The opening arrangement can be used of course on any suitable type of packing container whatever, and in Fig.6 is shown an embodiment where the opening arrangement is used so as to make possible the opening of, and the pouring out of contents from, a double package which consists of two individual packing containers (part containers) of known type placed tightly adjoining each other and connected to each other . The opening arrangement, which is of the main type described above or, in any case, is of the type which comprises a pouring pipe or an outlet duct, extends over the top sides of both part containers and connects openings on the two part containers with one another, the pouring pipe acting as a joint outlet duct. The slide of the opening arrangement here is provided with a suitable number of tearing components (with corresponding openings in the pouring pipe),e.g. four.The embodiment described earlier with two tearing components for each packing container assumes that a special air opening is necessary, but this is by no means always the case, and it is only a requirement, therefore, that one opening with associated tearing component should be present on each one of the two packing containers connected to each other. The two part containers forming the double packing container thus are both opened when the consumer manoeuvers the opening arrangement and on emptying out the contents of the package, the same flows through the same pouring pipe from both part containers. The part containers preferably are wrapped by a common plastic film which is shrunk round the packing containers as well as the opening arrangement and has holes for both ends of the opening arrangement. The plastic film here serves on the one hand as a stabilizing wrapping, on the other hand as a decorative film for the two unprinted part containers. The arrangement appropriately is also provided with a handle, e.g. a strap extending at a distance over the top of the packing containers (Fig.6). The opening arrangement in accordance with the invention makes possible in this manner the manufacture of packing containers with e.g. double volume by combining several known packing containers to a unit, which aallows in a simple manner and at small cost to adjust the manufacture rapidly to larger package volumes.

Claims

An opening arrangement joined to a wall of a packing container (20) and including an opening (12, 13) and a slide (1), characterized in that the slide (1) is displaceable in a pouring pipe (2) provided with the opening (12,13) and in that the slide (1) includes a tearing component (10, 11), which in the closed position of the opening arrangement is located in the pipe and which in the open position of the opening arrangement extends out through the opening (12, 13) in the pipe and into the packing container (20), so that the inner space of the latter is in communication with the environment via the pipe (2).
An opening arrangement in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the pipe (2) has a downwards directed ridge (16, 17) located opposite the opening (12, 13) which forces the tearing component (10, 11) out through the opening of the pipe (2) when the slide (1) is moved to the open position.
An opening arrangement in accordance with anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the tearing component (10, 11) is designed as a plough whose point on opening is forced down into the packing container wall and tears it open.
An opening arrangement in accordance with anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises several tearing components (10, 11) with associated openings (12, 13) in the pipe (2).
An opening arrangement in accordance with anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pipe (2) is of a rectangular cross-section.
An opening arrangement in accordance with anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pipe (2) is attached to the outside of the packing container (20) by means of glue.
An opening arrangement in accordance with anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pipe (2) has two open ends which are covered by wall parts projecting from the slide (1) when the opening arrangement is in closed position.
An opening arrangement in accordance with anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the slide (1) at its one end is provided with a gripping element (5) which projects from the one, rear end of the pipe (2).
An opening arrangement in accordance with anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the front end of the pipe (2) projects slightly from an edge delimiting the upper surface of the packing container (20).
An opening arrangement in accordance with anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the packing container (20) is provided with a weakened material area (21) at the opening (12, 13) present in the pipe (2).
An opening arrangement in accordance with claim 4, characterized in that each opening (12, 13) is connected to a separate part of the container.
An opening arrangement in accordance with claim 11, characterized in that it extends with a pouring pipe (2) over several individual, but mutually connected, part containers (20), an opening (12, 13) in the pouring pipe being located opposite an openable area of the container wall on each one of the part containers included in the packing container.
An opening arrangement in accordance with claim 12, characterized in that each of the openings (12, 13) in the pouring pipe (2) is adapted to co-operate with a tearing component which on manoeuvring of the opening arrangement is adapted to penetrate the container wall of the part containers so that the contents can be poured out from the part containers via the common pouring pipe (2).
An opening arrangement in accordance with claims 11-13, characterized in that the part containers are wrapped in a common plastic film which is shrunk round the part containers as well as the opening arrangement and has holes for the two ends of the same.